With existing video phone technology it is necessary to place a video camera at an appropriate distance from the subject who looks at the camera during the conversation. In the office environment the phone is typically placed at an angle to the user for convenient access while the user is positioned facing a computer terminal and keyboard.
When making a video call using a “normal” video phone the user either turns to speak into the video phone or is shown in profile and appears to be speaking away from the phone. As well, due to the difference in height between the user and the phone, the user is effectively shown speaking overhead unless they tilt their head sufficiently to face the camera directly.
For a laptop or desktop computer with video phone capability, the video camera is typically positioned on the monitor such that a subject looking at a video on the monitor is also looking toward the video camera, at an appropriate distance and viewing angle. This placement is best effort and requires appropriate placement of the monitor relative to the user and the user to face the camera.
In the case of available SIP Video Phones, such as the E20 VoIP Video Phone available from Tandberg, Cisco (http://www.tandberg.com/products/tandberg_e20.jsp) careful positioning of the phone and the user are necessary to provide the appearance that the user is speaking to the far end party.
Alternatively, the user may disregard the video camera placement and appear to not be speaking with the far end party. This may also result in the user moving in and out of focus or leaving the video frame in part or entirely.
With existing video phone technology the image also includes the background and environment of the user including what the user is doing and wearing. This may also include the periphery images around the user and other people who may be passing by or unknowingly entering the camera's field of view. To avoid this from happening, the video phone may be placed in an empty room and/or neutral environment and care is taken about who enters the field of view of the camera.
More typically, the field of view of the video camera is not monitored and the far end party is allowed to observe everything within or entering the field of view.
An alternative is to blur the background image as proposed by Okamoto, Masayoshi (Osaka, JP) in US Patent Publication, 2008/0240517. However, a blurred or distorted image may be distracting to the far-end user. As well, image processing techniques may allow restoration of the original image from a blurred or distorted version.
Systems and methods disclosed herein provide a communications method and system for video telephones or teleconferences to obviate or mitigate at least some of the aforementioned disadvantages.